Page 30 - Chinese SIlver By Adrien Von Ferscht

with only one chop mark were considered to have minimal loss of silver from only one
incuse mark. It was common for merchants to insist on ‘first chop Mexican dollars’, these
being the most valuable in terms of silver content and purity.

From the mid-17th century, more than 9 billion Troy ounces, or 290 thousand
tonnes, of silver was absorbed by China from European countries in exchange for
Chinese goods.

A 1904 Kiangnan Province ‘Dragon’ dollar

In the early 20th century, China decided to try to control the array of silver coinage
circulating by minting its own version which became known as “dragon” or “kwangtung”
dollars. It transpired that the coins were marked with the names of provincial mints which,
in tandem with scaremongering rumours that the coins were inferior to their trade dollar
counterparts, caused the the project to end in failure.

The warlord Zhou Xicheng’s silver dollar that became known as the AUTO DOLLAR commemorating the opening of
his Kweichow Highway. On the following year it is said that the warlord Zhou Xicheng was driving his automobile on
the road that he constructed. He then sped up and left his troops at a distance behind him. Shockingly, he was
ambushed by rebel enemy troops and, while trying to escape, he ran out of his car and was left dead on the grass on
the side of the road.